#morpho eugenia

[chaoticsorceressztc]

Due to Matty Crompton's fable about fairies in the story Morpho Eugenia by A.S. Byatt, it is now my favorite book. Despite it's adult topics.

I don't know what about the transformation in the story tickled my fancy so much but holy heck was it good.

Miss muffet as a fairy? Brilliant. Love Mistress Mouffet.

Perceive this intro of Mistress Mouffet, it sounds to me as if she were morphing into a humanoid shape somewhat "Two shiny black shoes arrived, with a little skip, and above them someone long and thin and black—a four-limbed creature, which resolved itself into a human shape, female, with a long black skirt and a white bonnet, shading a little white face with large hornrimmed glasses on a sharp nose. She was wrapped in a long, silvery cloak."(A.S. Byatt)

This is the quote that dragged me into this story. Even though I had to read it for one of my classes, this quote made sure I would not get bored. The amount of anthropomorphism that surrounded the book prior to this only emphasized this paragraph. Part of me reading this wishes to draw out the character described here just due to how eloquently it is written. I hope to let other transformation enthusiasts know about this novel, and to emphasize that in this fable of fiction within fiction there is even more transformation shown off. How much must I emphasize how interesting the second half of this book truly is so that others will seek it out? If only to read the transformations or better yet to read the story as a whole!

I hope my use of this quotation is correct in way of fair use, for I am trying my best while containing the excitement that this scene dragged into me!

[vfcatostudio]

Curriculumn Vitae

Education: Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK2001 – 2005, BA Painting (1st class hons) Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK2001, Alternative Foundation Course in Fine Art Solo exhibitions: February – April 2020Diamond Frances – Portraits, Poplar Union, London, UK Selected group exhibitions: July 2023This difference, Responsa Foundation, London,…

[katsuki15]

So in the year of our lord Lil Nas x 2023 were still having colonial incest plots in our murder mysteries

[morpho-eugenia]

Una vez, un muchacho me dijo que mi mirada le daban ganas de suicidarse, por lo triste que me veía. Aquella vez lo tomé como un cumplido porque pensaba que la muerte sería mi salvación; me era imposible contemplar mi vida y sentir entusiasmo por ella.

Ese mismo año, hace 6 años, sucedió aquel intento de suicidio que cambió mi vida para siempre, no fue el último, lo intenté un par de veces más; tampoco hizo que mi contexto o mi familia cambiara, ni mucho menos, hizo que me atienda el especialista apropiado.

Cambió mi vida porque nunca había llegado tan lejos, y porque desencadenó una serie de eventos que para 2020, cuando volví a tocar fondo, me dieron un atisbo de esperanza, una señal de que sí podía vivir de otra manera, ser feliz incluso.

Aquel año, con el corazón en la mano, decidí con voluntad que quería vivir, y la palabra "decisión" se volvió mi palabra favorita. Decidí que dejaría de considerar el suicidio como mi primera solución, decidí que dejaría de esclavizarme y someterme a las provocaciones de otros, decidí que tomaría el control de mis emociones, de mi cuerpo. Y comencé a actuar conforme.

Es cierto que la mejor manera de hacer algo es simplemente hacerlo, es solo que... a veces no pude, a veces me dolía y actuaba erráticamente.

Muchas de las ideas primarias que me empujaron al abismo se siguieron manifestando por detonantes como el llanto, la invasión a mi espacio personal, las muestras de afecto ... Y también se manifestaron sin causa aparente. Así que fue un camino de rosas con espinas.

Este año, en una nueva recaída, decidí demostrarme que soy suficiente como soy para ser amada, soy un ser completo y además entendí la importancia de ponerme como prioridad.

En cada ciclo de depresión - rehabilitación, fue necesario confrontar mis miedos, mi pasado. Hubieron días que solo pude llorar y dormir. Nuevamente, un camino de rosas y espinas...

Por eso la mariposa (Morpho significa "transmutar" y Eugenia "bien-nacida") porque cambié y espero seguir haciéndolo, hasta que duela cada vez menos, hasta ser capaz de demostrar paz, amor y respeto en cada acto.

Como decía Aristóteles, "la esperanza es el sueño del despierto".

Es la resiliencia que persiste en tus células, el primer paso hacia la valentía de pedir ayuda, tomar acción, hacer algo que te saque de la profundidad oscura.

Siempre está, incluso cuando se ha perdido todo. Puedes recurrir a ella para otorgarte significado porque permanecerá implícita mientras vivas todavía.

[missroserose]

Wednesday Reading Meme: Atmospheria Edition

Hello, tumblr!  I used to post these over on Dreamwidth, but for the past two and a half years, I’ve been reading almost exclusively fanfiction, with only occasional forays into book-land.  I’ve thought occasionally about writing about the fic I was reading, but frankly, most of it was short-ish works intended for easy gratification.  (Not that I'm knocking easy gratification!  But a 3500-word story about a captive Dean Winchester watching an evil version of himself and Castiel have sex is...entertaining, certainly, just maybe not in a way that lends itself to a lot of deeper analysis.) (Well, other than perhaps a judicious use of the "this better not awaken anything in me" meme.  Ahem.) That said! I've read a lot of fanfiction over the past few years, and plan to continue.  So I think I'm going to add a Fanfiction Spotlight slot to the Wednesday Reading Meme format.  Chances are there'll have been something I've read in any given week that feels like it deserves attention.  And in the meantime, I’ve been reading Actual Paper Books lately, largely as a way to wean myself of the doomscrolling habit...and since I’m low-key boycotting Goodreads these days, I figure I’ll try writing about them here.

So without further ado...

What I've recently finished reading The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern.  I'd previously read The Night Circus on a long-ass plane flight, and it turned out to be almost the perfect book for it—pure escapism so heavily drenched in dreamy poetic atmosphere that I could sink into it like a hot bath, and forget for much of the six-hour flight time that I was crammed into a tiny coach seat.  Sea is definitely in that same vein, but this time around I found the thinness and uncertainty of the plot to be rather more frustrating, in a way that overpowered the richness of the atmosphere.   There was still plenty there to enjoy, including a portal fantasy to any bibliophile's world of pure wish-fulfillment, and some meditations on love and change, and one quote in particular on the nature of love that's stuck with me...but I don't think the whole thing hangs together as well as it promised, at the start.  And while (as a fellow author) I completely understand that things change as you write them, when you reach a point in a story where it feels like the author has as little idea as you do what happens next, I find it a little demoralizing. Morpho Eugenia, by A.S. Byatt.  Now that I think about it, this novella makes for an interesting comparison to Sea, because it's similarly atmospheric, albeit less in the dreamy-imaginative-lovers-and-poets vein than the neo-Victorian highly-organized-and-tightly-laced-household-full-of-dark-undercurrents style.  It also does absolutely nothing surprising, plot-wise; it's 180 pages long and I think I'd identified most of the major themes and guessed the major arcs/big plot reveal by page fifteen.  That's not necessarily a fault in and of itself—there's something comforting about a story that does exactly what you expect, and it does a good job threading the needle of ladling on the foreshadowing without (quite) hitting you over the head with what's going on.  But frankly, the narrative stumbles somewhat in its slavish devotion to form.   As an example:  our protagonist is an entolomologist and atheist, penniless in the wake of a shipwreck that robbed him of his specimens and research, who finds himself living on the largesse of a wealthy family whose patriarch has an interest in natural philosophy.  So there are, of course, extensive passages on the nature and habits of various insects (meant to be excerpts from his work), on the potential space for the existence of God in natural selection (meant to be arguments from the patriarch), and even an extensive semi-allegorical insectoid fairy tale (written by another character entirely), which...certainly is all in keeping with the Victorian style, but none of which really feels particularly necessary to the story, here in this age where encyclopedias are a thing and anyone reading a neo-Victorian novella probably has at least a passing familiarity with the Deist arguments being held in the wake of Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species.  Some cynical part of me wonders if Byatt was trying to write a whole novel, only to discover that the main thrust of her story was nowhere near substantial enough to support one, and even with all the padding she only managed to reach novella length. What I'm currently reading Technically I haven't started it, but The Conjugial Angel is the other Byatt novella in the collection I picked up, so I'm probably going to power through that just so I won't feel guilty about tossing the book on the "to be donated" pile.  If it's anything like Morpho Eugenia, I expect to feel thoroughly "meh" about it, but hey!  Maybe I'll be surprised! What I plan to read next I have two specific recommended-by-friends books in my queue.  The first is Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, which I'm rather looking forward to despite my somewhat uneven relationship with Russian literature.  It was recommended to me by @coffeeandchemicals, and the bits and pieces of Solzhenitsyn I've encountered in the wild make me suspect I'll find his perspective interesting.  And even if I end up hating it, well...it's short. The second is Margo Lanagan's book Tender Morsels, which I know very little about other than it's a dark fairy tale.  But it was sent by @introvertia, who's become quite dear to me, and the theme of it (the jacket cover promises an Edenic tale of three women turned out of their personal Heaven and having to deal with the harsh realities of the outside world) certainly feels appropriate to 2020. Fanfiction Spotlight I was particularly taken with the premise of @zoemathemata's Supernatural/Supernatural RPF story "Folie a Deux".  Sam and Dean Winchester are held captive in Lofty Pines Mental Institution for unknown reasons, slowly being brainwashed into thinking that they're two run-of-the-mill dudes named Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki...or are Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki two men suffering from the delusion that they're supernatural-creature hunter brothers named Sam and Dean Winchester?  And if they're brothers, how do they square that with the fact that they can't seem to keep their hands off each other...? It's a clever idea, with the sort of meta-analytical flavor that's very in keeping with the show itself, and zoemathemata makes full use of the opportunity to break down the many inconsistencies and flaws that any long-running serialized story accumulates but that we, the audience, overlook for the sake of the Plot of the Week.  My one personal complaint about it is that it ends too soon—the most immediate plot threads are resolved but there's a distinct sense that this is the beginning rather than the ending.  The author says in the comments that they didn't continue it in part because they couldn't decide which was the reality—and I totally get not wanting to spend months or years writing a novel-length fic out of what's supposed to be a quick bit of fun—but there's just so much you could do with this idea.  Even without picking sides, it could be a Total Recall-style ambiguously-themed case fic, or a "Frame of Mind"-esque dark psychological thriller, or any number of other options...

What can I say?  I have a weakness for unreliable narrators.

[northwest-by-a-train]

Top 5 short stories please? :)✨

Oh god that's such a good one! I'll just put 5 down because I'm terrible at ranking, but here goes

A Lamia in the Cévennes by A.S Byatt

The one in the list I read most recently! Byatt is excellent at long, sprawling novels (Possession is a favourite) punchy yet deeply engaging novelettes (Morpho Eugenia!) And short stories in general. Really interesting how a story born from a play on words can blossom into something alive and haunting.

La Parure, by Guy de Maupassant

Though I might've read the occasional Conan Doyle or Poe story in middle school before, this one was the first short story that hit me like a truck. Simple, elegant, universal, made me fall in love with Maupassant.

Come Rain or Come Shine, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Devastating. No words can do it justice.

Only Orange/Faits Extraordinaires sur la Vision des Couleurs, by Camille Bordas

I love Camille Bordas. She is thus far one of the only writers (with Yasmina Reza) able to perfectly replicate french life in the most minuscule turns of phrase, thought, references, while remaining appealing to the non-french. And she's so fresh! So funny! She reconciles the sheer blandness of being averagely french with The New Yorker! Incredible balancing act! She's also her own translator, which I have nothing but respect for.

Mariage, by Jean-Paul Dubois

What I know is she up and left one morning and I was stuck with the two kids. I had to make do. So I phoned my mother and asked her to move in. She said she had trouble enough with my father and didn't want another family on her back. What was I supposed to do ? I was completely lost, so I proposed to the first woman I saw. And the first woman I saw was your wife. Tough luck, y'know. Especially since back then, I didn't know you. (Trans. Léonie Messidor-Bray)

Dubois makes a trade of one-paragraph short stories. For some reason this "Especially since back then, I didn't know you" anchored itself in me ? A fun writer

[dushesssaturn]

Name: Denisse Eugenia Von Morpho Alias:??? Mafia: butterfly height: 2 meters / 6'5ft Gender: female Pronouns: she / her Age: 40 Species: Butterfly Morpho Eugenia work: Knight Personality: calm, serene, mysterious, kind and helpful Status: single Power skills: control and manipulation of energy and light (she is able to move light to care for flowers like making plasma weapons and energy ... besides laser beams) she is strong, agile and skillful with the sword Cause of death: suicide Sexuality: straight Tastes: flowers, tea, sunny days, full moon, reading, music (she knows how to sing) she also likes to go to dances and dance with the pretty men I do not like:??? Short biography: daughter of a royal family, she was promised to an old king a loveless marriage, she had a gentleman who accompanied and cared for her ... they both fell in love, but her husband discovered them, sent execute the knight and she was locked in a tower she could only go out when she got pregnant with a son of the old king, but the king could never get her pregnant since he was very old, Denisse was raped every night ... desperate and heartbroken she committed suicide using a poisonous spider - Other data of interest: - sometimes she falls asleep in the garden - she loves her mafia colleagues very much, she regards them as family - she doesn't think anyone likes her - she feels like an old woman - Secret Love: (does not have)

BUTTERFLY MAFIA <3 belong to @sophia-draws8

[ljones41]

“ANGELS & INSECTS” (1995) Review

“ANGELS & INSECTS” (1995) Review

I never thought I would come around to writing this review. I have seen the 1995 movie, “ANGELS & INSECTS” a good number of times during the past five years. Yet, I never got around to posting a review of this movie, until recently. Why? I have not the foggiest idea. Nor do I have any idea why I had finally decided to write that review.

Based upon A.S. Byatt’s 1992 novella called “Morpho Eugenia”, “ANGELS & INSECTS”tells the story of a poor naturalist named William Adamson, who returns home to Victorian England after having spent years studying the natural wildlife – especially insects – in the Amazon Basin. Despite losing all of his possession during a shipwreck, he manages to befriend a baronet named Sir Harald Alabaster, who is also an amateur insect collector and botanist. The latter hires William to catalog his specimen collection and assist his younger children’s governess the natural sciences.

William eventually falls for Sir Harald’s oldest daughter, Eugenia, who is mourning the suicide of her fiance. Both of them eventually become emotionally involved and decide to marry. Much to William’s surprise, both Sir Harald and Lady Alabaster seems encouraging of the match. The only member of the Alabaster family who is against their upcoming wedding is Sir Harald’s eldest child, the arrogant Edgar. Not only is the latter close to Eugenia, he believes that William is unworthy of his sister’s hand, due to having a working-class background. The marriage between William and Eugenia seemed to be a happily lustful one that produces five children (among them two sets of twins). But Eugenia’s hot and cold control over their sex life, a constantly hostile Edgar, William’s growing friendship to Lady Alabaster’s companion Matilda “Matty” Crompton, and William’s own disenchantment over his role as Sir Harald’s official assistant brings their marriage to a head after several years of marriage.

The film adaptation of Byatt’s novella seemed to be the brainchild of Philip and Belinda Haas. Both worked on the film’s screenplay, while Philip also served as the film’s director and Belinda served as both co-producer (there are three others) and film editor. From my perusal of many period drama blogs, I get the feeling that “ANGELS & INSECTS” is not very popular with many of the genre’s fans. On the other hand, many literary and film critics seemed to have a very high regard for it. Despite my love for the usual romantic costume drama, I must admit that my opinions of the 1995 film falls with the latter group. It is simply too well made and too fascinating for me to overlook.

There were times I could not tell whether “ANGELS & INSECTS” is some look at the age of Victorian science exploration, the close study of an upper-class 19th century family, or a lurid tale morality. Now that I realize it, the movie is probably an amalgamation of them all, wrapped around this view on Darwinism and breeding – in regard to both the insect world and humans. The topic of breeding seemed to seep into the screenplay in many scenes. Some of them come to mind – Sir Harald and Edgar’s debate on the breeding of horses and other animals, William and Eugenia’s second encounter with moths in the manor’s conservatory, Sir Harald’s despairing rant on his declining usefulness within his own household, the reason behind Edgar’s hostility toward William, and the visual comparisons between the bees and the inhabitants of the Alabaster estate, with Lady Alabaster serving as some metaphor for an aging Queen bee on her last legs. The metaphor of the Queen bee is extended further into Eugenia. Not only does she assume her mother’s role as mistress of the house following the latter’s death; but like Lady Alabaster before her, gives birth to a growing number of blond-haired children. If a person has never seen “ANGELS AND INSECTS” before, he or she could follow both the script and cinematographer Bernard Zitzerman’s shots carefully to detect the clues that hint the cloistered degeneracy that seemed to unconsciously permeate the Alabaster household.

I cannot deny that “ANGELS & INSECTS” is a gorgeous film to behold. Philip and Belinda Haas, along with the film’s other producers did an excellent job in creating a visually stunning film with a bold and colorful look. Cinematographer Bernard Zitzermann, along with production designer Jennifer Kernke and Alison Riva’s art direction provided great contributions to the film’s visual style. But in my opinion, Paul Brown’s Academy Award nominated costume designs not only conveyed the film’s colorful visual style more than anything else, but also properly reflected the fashion styles of the early 1860s for women – including the growing penchant for deep, solid colors – as shown below:

Adding to the movie’s rich atmosphere was Alexander Balanescu’s memorable score. I thought the composer did an excellent job of reflecting both the movie’s elegant setting and its passionate, yet lurid story.

As much as I enjoyed and admired “ANGELS & INSECTS”, I believe it had its flaws. I understand why Philip Haas had opened the movie with shots of William Adamson socializing with inhabitants of the Amazonian jungle, juxtaposing with the Alabaster ball given in his honor. Is it just me or did Haas use white – probably British – actors to portray Amazonian natives? I hope I am wrong, but I fear otherwise. I also feel that the movie was marred by a slow pacing that nearly crawled to a halt. I cannot help but wonder if Haas felt insecure by the project he and his wife had embarked upon, considering that “ANGELS & INSECTS” was his second motion picture after many years as a documentarian. Or perhaps he got caught up in his own roots as a documentarian, due to his heavy emphasis on the natural world being studied by William, Matty and the younger Alabaster children. In a way, I have to thank Balanescu’s score for keeping me awake during those scenes that seemed to drag.

I cannot deny that the movie featured some top-notch and subtle performances. Mark Rylance, who has a sterling reputation as a stage actor, gave such a quiet and superb performance that his reputation has extended to film, resulting in a Best Actor Oscar over a year ago. Kristin Scott-Thomas was equally superb as the Matty Crompton, Lady Alabaster’s very observant companion, who shared William’s interests in natural sciences. I have no idea what reputation Patsy Kensit has as an actress, but I certainly believe she gave an excellent performance as William’s beautiful and aristocratic wife, Eugenia Alabaster, whose hot and cold attitude toward her husband kept him puzzled. Jeremy Kemp gave one of his more complex and entertaining performances as William’s father-in-law, the amateur scientist Sir Harald Alabaster. Douglas Henshall had a difficult job in portraying the bullying Edgar Alabaster, who seemed to view William as both beneath contempt and something of a threat to his views of the world. The movie also featured solid performances from the likes of Anna Massey, Saskia Wickham, Chris Larkin, Clare Redman and Annette Badlands.

Some fans of period drama might be taken aback by the graphic sexuality featured in the film, along with the story’s lurid topic. And director Philip Haas’ pacing might be a bit hard to accept. But I feel that enduring all of this might be worth the trouble. Philip and Belinda Haas, along with the crew and a cast led by Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Patsy Kensit did an excellent in re-creating A.S. Byatt’s tale on the screen, and creating a first-rate movie in the end.

[aceaviatrix]

sometimes i think about the fact that the most researched, longest, most in-depth paper i wrote in school was for 12th grade AP english. 17 pages comparing character archetypes in “Paradise Lost” and AS Byatt’s novella “Morpho Eugenia”.

(i think the longest paper i had to write in college came in at 12 pages. AP english was no fucking joke.)

[evaschez]

Morpho Eugenia es el nombre de esta preciosa mariposa macho. He descubierto su nombre hoy viendo Angels and Insects de Philip Haas, excelente película. Lo curioso es que yo ya conocía esta mariposa desde el año pasado. Una noche soñé con un broche de Japón en forma de mariposa azul, de ese azul precisamente, mí color favorito, y beige por la cara interna. Ahora sé que existe. Nabokov también escribió en sus diarios sobre los sueños inversos, que se anticipan a la realidad y también apreciaba mucho las mariposas. Recóndita armonía. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnH-H49lc31/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x82gxqwvz1v

[vfcatostudio]

CV

VIOLET FRANCES CATO

(previously Diamond Frances)

Education:

Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK 2001 - 2005, BA Painting (1st class hons)

Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK 2001, Alternative Foundation Course in Fine Art

Solo exhibitions:

February - April 2020 Diamond Frances - Portraits, Poplar Union, London, UK

Selected group exhibitions:

February 2023 This difference, Responsa Foundation, Wiener Holocaust Library, London, UK 

June 2022 May Fair Show Reel, The May Fair Hotel, London, UK

September - October 2020 Visions in the Nunnery, Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts, London, UK

August 2020  IFF... Experimental Films, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK

November 2019 The Apartment #12, curated by Paolo Fiorentini, Bow, London, UK 

January 2017 Postcards from the Edge, Metro Pictures Gallery, New York, USA

June 2016 Europa, Transition Gallery, London, UK

October - November 2007 Different Levels - Kunst im Turm, City Tower, Vienna, Austria

June - September 2006 KIC Nordart, Kunst in der Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germany

June - August 2005 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

August - October 2005 Morpho Eugenia, curated by Rita Selvaggio, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, San Marino

Publications:

Da.Heim?, UND#11, Heft fuer Alternativen, Widersprueche und Konkretes, November 2021, Innsbruck, Austria

[missroserose]

Wednesday Reading Meme: Bathroom Grinding Edition

Sadly, "bathroom grinding" isn't half so naughty as it sounds.  Whatever the remodelers are doing downstairs, it sounds like they're vibrating the whole damn room apart.  But!  We're three days in and they've been consistently on time, our project manager has been communicative, and (to my admittedly untrained eye) they appear to be doing excellent work.  And they've been super courteous about wearing masks, too.  So really, I can't complain. What I've just finished reading Angels & Insects, by A.S. Byatt.  Confession time: I noped out about a third of the way through The Conjugial Angel.  There was some interesting cultural examination of the various social forces that gave rise to spiritualism (and the ways it allowed women of a certain age/lack of marital status to participate in society in a culturally-sanctioned way), but the farcical characters and lack of anything resembling a plot just Did Not Do It for me, especially when combined with Byatt's heavily-Victorian-esque writing style.  It didn't even have Morpho Eugenia's implied-incest subplot to add spice.   The Trouble With Peace, by Joe Abercrombie.  I forgot to write about this last week because I didn't think about audiobooks, and also because I'd been taking a bit of a break from it.  Joe Abercrombie is absolutely masterful at that style of writing where the bulk of the story involves setting up all the individual characters and their histories, connections, abilities, and motivations (overt and covert)—and then, in the third act, flicking one of the dominoes and watching everything fall.  It's satisfying as heck in the end, but can sometimes be a little long in the windup.  Still, Peace definitely fulfills its promises, and ends on that perfect kind of cliffhanger that I both kicking myself for not seeing coming and absolutely get why I didn't see it coming.  Related, I note that his major themes for this trilogy include the shifting of norms in the face of new technology, the breakdown of social institutions in the wake of increasing wealth stratification, and the dangers of fanaticism directly related to increasing polarization—definitely none of which have any resonance with current events whatsoever.  Definitely looking forward to the third book, and (at the risk of repeating myself) Steven Pacey continues to do an absolutely phenomenal job performing these books. What I'm currently reading One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn.  Straightforward almost to a fault, I'm not sure I have a whole lot to say about the story yet.  I get that it was a huge deal in its time, since it was one of the first truly honest portrayals of life in a Soviet gulag that was allowed to be published, but given that my previous exposure to Solzhenitsyn had been in the context of his more philosophical work, I guess I was expecting a little more philosophizing?  Still, there's some reflection around the edges; I note the recurring theme of "the guards are just as trapped in their roles as the prisoners are in theirs, and subject to many of the same privations", which feels very Russian.  Bureaucracy dehumanizes us all. I did note a passage in the Yevgeny Yevtushenko's foreword where he talks of Solzhenitsyn's disdainful attitude towards liberals, artists, and the intelligentsia, as none of their ideals or pretensions are of any use in the camps.  He goes on to note that without the aid of the intelligentsia, who rallied under its banner, Ivan Denisovich would likely never have been published, but appears to dismiss this as a "complicated relationship" without going much further into it.  Which struck me as more than a little odd; presumably, Solzhenitsyn had some artistic pretensions—you don't generally write a book, otherwise!—even if it was only to portray harsh realities that had been hidden from the general public.  I wonder if this is a Soviet cultural thing, wanting to prove Solzhenitsyn's bona fides at writing working-class characters by separating him out from the pretentious elites?  I should ask Ksenia about it. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir.  I nabbed this audiobook entirely on the basis of some chatter about it in my writing group, and so far it hasn't lead me astray—I've only really listened to the first sequence and a bit of the following backstory, but I really like the two major characters we've introduced so far.  (I'm not sure you're supposed to like Harrowhawk, but given that her name is the title of the second book, I don't think you're supposed to not like her.  And I admire her absolute ruthlessness.)  I admit that I'm a little concerned about the extensive Dramatis Personae listed at the start of the book—I have a mixed track record with high fantasy/sci-fi stories with large casts that I often lose track of—but if the book can keep up the strength of Gideon's voice, that'll do a lot to keep my interest. What I plan to read next Still looking forward to Tender Morsels!  After that, it occurs to me that I have the sequel to Naomi Novik's Uprooted, which I enjoyed immensely, sitting on my to-be-read pile...we'll see! Fanfiction Spotlight ancientreader's "Riddle Me This, Mr. Holmes" is a complete delight, both in its concept and in its execution.   Watson, traveling to visit family but concerned about his friend and lover's somewhat fragile mental health, takes to sending him lines of a riddle via telegram and urchin-enacted charade each day.  It's precisely the sort of thing you could see Watson doing for Holmes (no matter how you view their relationship); understated, thoughtful, and introducing just that little bit of extra chaos into the buttoned-up detective's life.  I was completely and utterly charmed, all the more so by their banter-via-telegram once Holmes cottons on.

[northwest-by-a-train]

What is the best love story you've ever read? (You can name a few.)

My go-to answer for this will always be From A to X, by John Berger. Both because it is an excellent book and because I introduced it to a friend of mine and they liked it, and it was the beginning of a lovely book exchange back and forth. It is the best book on love, full stop.

Then there are the following ones, which are good, but not quite as good:

Possession & Morpho Eugenia, by A.S Byatt. Undisputed queen of the Neo-victorian novel

Trumpet, by Jackie Kay.

It's not a straight-up love story, but more of a biography touched by love, but it's impossible for me not to put Primo Levi's The periodic table in there.

Le détective triste, aka Lost cat, by Jason. That last panel will haunt me til my dying day.

Habibi, by Craig Thompson. The most epic and visually beautiful thing on that list.

The Blackwater series, by Michael McDowell. The shape of water if the fish ate people and were a tad more evil.

Mostly Hero, by Anna Burns (of Milkman fame). Funniest and shortest on that list.

Isis in Darkness, by Margaret Atwood. It speaks to me.

M. Butterfly, by David Hwang. Based on a (hilarious, tragic, beautiful) true story.

The Beatrice Letters. I can quote back all of question 9 by memory these days.

La fausse maîtresse, by Balzac.

The transformation of Martin Lake, by Jeff VanDermeer. The only male gay story I really loved

Fragments of a lover's discourse, by Barthes

She would feel the same, by Emma Hunsinger. The only book on that list to have scorched me

Delphine under a black light is the title I remember. I read it when I was 17 (one of the first books I read in college) and it felt like getting my skull expanded. But I've never been able to find it ever again. If anyone knows what I might be thinking of, hmu

[virgoantendencies7]

I used to think of Linnaeus...

“‘I used to think of Linnaeus, in the forest, constantly. He bound the New World so tightly to the imagination of the Old when he named the swallowtails for the Greek and Trojan heroes, and the Heliconiae for the Muses. There I was, in lands never before entered by Englishmen, and round me fluttered Helen and Menelaus, Apollo and the Nine, Hector and Hecuba and Priam. The imagination of the scientist had colonised the untrodden jungle before I got there.’”

–A.S. Byatt, ANGELS & INSECTS

[bookish--thoughts]

Lately I have been so busy with uni stuff - lots of reading and tasks to do - so I have not really had much time or desire to read in my spare time. However, now I am on my autumn break, and I was thinking of reading Ragnarok by A. S. Byatt. Is it any good? Earlier this year, I read Morpho Eugenia by her, and I really liked it. I have already read a bit of Ragnarok, and so far it seems to be quite different from ME. Nevertheless, the way A. S. Byatt writes is beautiful; very poetic.

[shipcestuous]

"This-has been going on all the time, hasn't it? All the time I've been here?" He could see the lies pass over her face, like clouds over the moon. Then she shuddered, and nodded. "Yes." "How long?" said William. "Since I was very little. Very little, yes. It began as a game. You cannot possibly understand." "No. I cannot." "At first it seemed nothing to do with the rest of my life. It was just something-secret-that was, you know - like other things you must not do. Like touching yourself, in the dark. You don't understand." "No. I don't." "And then-and then-when I was going to marry Captain Hunt-he saw-he saw-oh, not so much as you have seen-but enough to guess. And it preyed on his mind. It preyed on his mind. I swore then, I would stop it - I did stop it - I wanted to be married, and good, and-like other people- and I-did persuade him-he was mistaken in me. It was so hard, for he would not say what he feared-he would not speak it out loud-and that was when I saw-how very terrible-it was-I was. 'Only we could not stop. I do not think-he-" she choked on Edgar's name, "meant even to stop-he-he is-strong-and of course Captain Hunt-someone led him to see-he saw-not much-but enough. And he wrote a terrible letter-to-to both of us-and said-oh-" she began to weep rapidly suddenly, "he could not live with the knowledge, even if we could. That is what he said. And then he shot himself. In his desk there was a note, to me, saying I would know why he had died, and that he hoped I would be able to be happy." William watched her weep. "But even after that-you went on." "Who else could I turn to?" She went on weeping. William looked back over his life. He said, "You turned on me. Or made use of me, anyway." He began to feel very sick indeed. "All your children, who revert so shockingly to the ancestral type-" "I don't know, I don't know. I made sure I don't know," cried Eugenia, on a new high frantic note.

-Angels and Insects